DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION OF PASSENGER STEAMERS. 287 



SINGLE-BERTH ROOMS. 



No doubt this is a feature appealing to all people traveling alone; the comforts of a little 

 place all your own for the voyage need no eulogies. On the North Atlantic such rooms are 

 now numerous; elsewhere they are not unknown. 



A most ingenious plan that can be used in all vessels, particularly in those with ample 

 'tween-deck height, is that of placing two berths over each other, but so stepping the divid- 

 ing bulkhead that one berth is in one room and the other in another room; in one room 

 there is a lower berth only and in the other an upper berth only. 



I do not recall which line gets the credit for the scheme, but it is a good one. 



DETAILS OF CONSTRUCTION. 



Standard transverse framing continues to be the general rule for passenger ships. Wide- 

 spaced framing is often adopted in order to get a spacing that suits details of accommodation 

 better. If pushed to extremes, framing too deep for good hold capacities may result, besides 

 very heavy shell plating: in way of machinery, deep framing does not affect capacity; care- 

 fully applied, it can be made an advantage. 



Longitudinal framing has not the same strong hold as in oil tankers and in long shallow 

 vessels of all classes; vessels for rivers, etc., will always do well to consider longitudinal 

 framing, but for deep-sea passenger vessels, with many decks, its advantages are not so clear. 



Cruiser stems for twin (and above) screw ships are here and do not need so much 

 arguing for as a decade ago ; there are still people who do not like their looks and, of course, 

 that is their privilege. They have solid merit, however, in improving stability and speed per- 

 formances. For single-screw ships they are generally a bit of a misfit. 



Electric arc welding has found a definite place in shipyards ; without getting too enthu- 

 siastic and hailing the all-welded ship and the exit of the rivetter, driller and caulker, it re- 

 mains a fact that there is ample room for a welding department in any big yard to work on 

 details and that not altogether, by any means, on what we may politely term "correctional" 

 work. 



Wooden decks inside quarters are well nigh a thing of the past in ocean ships ; there are 

 several satisfactory plastic deck coverings for all interior spaces other than those generally 

 cemented and tiled. There are also several forms of cork flooring which give good results. 

 Parquet may be desirable for inside dancing spaces. Wooden decks are still premier for 

 open deck spaces over quarters and for promenades. 



In order to shorten turn around in port, either ship or dock, and sometimes both, have 

 to be better equipped with cargo gear than was only a short time ago considered proper. 

 The Old North State and American Legion classes fully bear this out, their twin derrick 

 systems and numerous hatches having been commented on in every port visited. It should 

 be noted that their close subdivision accentuates this feature. 



The recent revisions of the rules of all the classification societies have placed in the 

 hands of the shipyards methods of designing structure and details which enable much quicker 

 and better work to be done. 



Joiner work is not so dependent on wood for panels as formerly; as with sanitary 

 floors, so with paneling, there are now on the market several satisfactory composition boards, 

 and panels of these, mounted directly on the tongue and groove partitions, enable the two 



